Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Azabu University, Sagamihara, Japan.
Vet Pathol. 2011 Sep;48(5):1029-34. doi: 10.1177/0300985810396106. Epub 2011 Jan 18.
Accumulating evidence supporting the cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis is based on the finding that tumors contain a small population of self-renewing cells that generate differentiated progeny and thereby contribute to tumor heterogeneity. CSCs are reported to exist in several human cancers, yet only a few reports demonstrate the existence of CSCs in primary lung cancer in dogs. In this study, the authors established a cancer cell line derived from a canine primary lung adenocarcinoma and identified a side population (SP) of cells that displayed drug-resistant features. To confirm the characteristics of these SP cells, the authors investigated the tumorigenicity of the cells in vivo by using a nude mouse xenograft model. Only 100 SP cells were able to give rise to new tumors, giving a 10-fold enrichment over the main population (MP) of cells, suggesting that these cells have the cancer-initiating ability of CSCs. Further studies characterizing CSCs in canine lung adenocarcinoma might contribute to the elucidation of the mechanisms of tumorigenesis and to the establishment of novel therapeutic strategies.
越来越多的证据支持癌症干细胞（CSC）假说，其依据是肿瘤中存在一小群自我更新的细胞，这些细胞产生分化后代，从而促进肿瘤异质性。CSC 被报道存在于几种人类癌症中，但只有少数报告表明犬原发性肺癌中存在 CSC。在这项研究中，作者建立了一个源自犬原发性肺腺癌的癌细胞系，并鉴定出具有耐药特征的侧群（SP）细胞。为了确认这些 SP 细胞的特征，作者通过使用裸鼠异种移植模型研究了细胞的致瘤性。只有 100 个 SP 细胞能够产生新的肿瘤，比主群体（MP）细胞富集了 10 倍，这表明这些细胞具有 CSC 的起始癌症的能力。进一步研究犬肺腺癌中的 CSC 可能有助于阐明肿瘤发生的机制，并建立新的治疗策略。
